Reclining chair



' July 14, 1959 A. LORENZ 2,394,564

RECLINING CHAIR Filed on. 12, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 j 5' 28 I INVENTOR.

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y 4, 1959 A. LORENZ 2,894,564

RECLINING CHAIR Filed 12. 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR: Ga -Z021 LoreflZ United States Patent 7 2,894,564 RECLINING CHAIR Anton Lorenz, Boynton Beach, Fla.

Application October 12, 1956, Serial No. 615,526 8 Claims. (c1. 155-117 This invention relates to chairs of the type in which in Fig. 2. Near the rear end of the side rails 25 of the seat, grooves 28 are provided which face toward the center of the chair as shown in Fig. 3 and wear plates 30 are secured in the bottoms of these grooves or recesses.

,' 32 represents the back rest of the chair which has side 1' rails 33 which are connected with each other at their the seat and the back may be moved to and from a sitting position into a reclining position.

Chairs of this type have generally been so made that when the back of the chair is inclined rearwardly, the seat is either left in a horizontal position or is inclined into another position, neither of which are comfortable to the user of the chair. Consequently it is an object of this invention to provide a construction for chairs of this type in which the seat of the chair is so connected with the back of the chair that the seat in each position of the back will be so arranged as to provide the utmost comfort for the user. It is also an object of this invention to provide a chair of this kind which may also be folded to occupy a compact space. A further object is to provide a chair of this type which is provided with upper ends, for example by means of slats 34 or other suitable means. The side rails of the back are spaced closer together than the side rails of the seat and consequently the lower portions of these rails fit between the side rails of the seat. At the lower ends of the back rest the side rails are pivoted at 36 on the blocks 20 of the rear legs 12 of the chair below and in rear of the pivots or hinges 27 connecting the seat with the rear legs. The side rails 33 of the back rest are connected by means of a cross piece 38 which also extends outwardly beyond the a foot rest which is moved into a foot supporting position when the back of the chair is inclined rearwardly and which is moved into an inoperative position frame when the back of the chair is swung forwardly into a substantially vertical position.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will appear in the following description and claims.

In the accompanying drawings: 7

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a chair embodying this invention and which may be folded into a compact :Space.

Fig. 2 is a side view thereof when folded.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view thereof with the parts 8.1" ranged in seating position and partly cut away to show lower parts of the chair.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of one of the rearwardly extending rails'of the chair seat.

.Fig. 5 is a perspective view thereof. 7

Referring to the drawings in Which my invention is shown as applied to a folding type of chair, this chair has front legs 11 and rear legs 12 which together with the front legs form the base of the chair. The two front legs 11 are connected with each other by means of cross members 13 and 14. The front and rear legs are connected with each other by means of hinges 15 which are preferably secured to the cross piece 14 of the front legs 11. The rear legs are spaced apart a shorter distance than the front legs so that the rear legs may fit between the front legs 11 when the chair is folded about the hinges 15 as shown in Fig. 2. The swinging of the front legs relatively to the rear legs is limited by means of a pair of pivotally connected links 16. One link of each pair has one end pivotally connected with a front leg of the chair and the other link of the pair has one end pivotally connected to a rear leg. The other ends of the links are pivotally connected with each other at 17. These links swing toward each other when the legs are moved into folding position and the links then enter into recesses 18 and 19 formed in the legs of the chair. The rear legs each have blocks 20 secured to the inner faces thereof and extend rearwardly therefrom and these blocks are connected by a cross piece 21 shown in Figs. 2 and 5.

The seat shown, by way of example, has rails 25 at sides of the rails 33 of the back rest. The ends of the cross piece 38 extend into the grooves 28 of the seat rails 25, and are slida'ble therein. To reduce the wear on the cross piece, wear plates 39 are preferably secured to the ends of the cross piece 38 in position to cooperate with the wear pieces 30. These wear pieces 30 and 39 reduce the friction which results when the seat 32 is moved about its pivot 36 and the wear on these contacting parts.

The normal sitting position of the seat and the back rest is shown in full lines in Fig. 1; and if a person leans backward, the back rest is tilted into the position shown in broken lines in Fig. 1 and this results in the movement of the seat into the inclined position also shown in broken lines. During the swinging of the back rest from the fullline position to the broken line position in Fig. l, the arc of movement of the ends of the crosspiece 38 about the pivot or hinge 36 when the back rest is swung rearwardly will cause the rear ends of the rails 25 of the seat to swing downwardly thus causing the seat to swing about its pivots 27. The seat will occupy an inclined position with the front end thereof higher than the rear which is the position which is most comfortable to users. It will be noted that the ends of the grooves 28 terminate in shoulders which form stops with which the ends of the cross piece 38 engage for limiting the extent to which the chair back and seat may move into normal sitting or inclined positions. Consequently the length of the grooves 23 determines the extent to which the back of the chair may swing rearwardly into reclining position and to the extent to which the chair seat may swing.

When the chair is to be folded, the pivotally connected ends of the links 16 are moved downwardly whereupon the rear legs 12 may be swung between the front legs, as is common practice with folding chains. When the rear legs are swung toward the front legs, the pivots 27 are swung downwardly, thus swinging the rear end of the seat downwardly, so that the recesses 28 are swung away from the ends of the crossbar 38. This makes it possible to swing the back and seat toward each other as shown in Fig. 2. However, when the chair is again unfolded the ends of the cross bar 38 again enter the recesses 28 and limit the swinging of the back relatively to the seat.

It will be obvious that the relative movement of the back and seat as stated in the foregoing description is not limited for use only on folding chairs since the mechanism described can be used on chairs of other kinds, such for example as chairs with stationary frames or bases on which the tilting back rest and seat may be mounted to move from a sitting position into a semireolined or tilting position. i

It will be understood that various changes in the details, materials and arrangements of parts, which have been herein described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of the invention, may be made by those skilled in the art, within the principle and scope of the invention, as expressed in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A reclining chair having a frame, a seat having side rails provided with parts extending rearwardly therefrom, said seat being pivoted on said frame in rear of the transverse middle portion of said sent, a back rest having side rails provided with parts extending downwardly therefrom and pivoted on said frame to enable said back rest to swing from a substantially upright position to a rearwardly inclined position, a cross member extending across said downwardly extending parts of said side rails of said back rest and beyond the same into position to engage the reaiwardly extending parts of said seat to swing said seat about its pivotal connections when said back is swung about its pivotal connections.

2. A reclining chair having a frame, a seat having a pivotal connection with said frame and located in rear of the middle portion of said seat, a back rest having a pivotal connection with said frame at the lower end below the seat level and spaced from the pivotal connection between said seat and said frame, said back rest crossing said rear portion of said seat, cooperating sliding means having one part thereof secured to said back rest and another part thereof secured to the rear portion of the seat to depress said rear portion of said seat and lift the front portion of said seat upwardly when said back rest is tilted backwardly, said back rest having side rails extending downwardly therefrom and which are pivoted on said frame to enable the back rest to swing from a substantially upright position to a rear wardly inclined position, the pivotal connections of the back rest and seat being spaced apart so that when the back rest is swung on its pivotal connection, the back rest will have a sliding engagement with the rear portion of the seat to swing the front of said seat upwardly and downwardly.

3. A reclining chair according to claim 2 and including a cross member extending across said downwardly extending parts of said side rails of said back rest and beyond the same into position to engage the rear of said seat to swing said seat about its pivotal connections when said back is swung about its pivotal connections.

4. A chair according to claim 2 in which the pivotal connection between the back rest and the chair frame is located below and in rear of the pivotal connection between said seat and said frame, said parts on said back rest positioned to engage the upper surface of said parts of said seat in rear of the pivot thereof for swinging the front of said seat upwardly when the back rest is swung rearWardly.

5. A reclining chair having a frame formed of front and rear legs pivotally connected at their upper ends to fold toward each other, means holding said legs in their extended operative position, a seat halving pivotal connection with the upper edge of the rear legs and in spaced relation to said front legs, a back rest having a pivotal connection with said back legs below said pivotal connection of said seat and crossing the rear portion of the seat and parts rigid on said back rest cooperating with said seat in rear of its pivotal connection for swinging the rear of said seat downwardly and the front of said seat upwardly when said back rest is swung rearwardly about its pivotal connection.

6. A chair according to claim 5 in Which said seat has recesses in which said parts of said back rest engage to swing said seat, said recesses terminating iii shoulders which form stops to limit the extent to which said back rest can swing relatively to said chair frame.

7. A chair according to claim 5 in which the parts of said back rest which cooperate with said seat are formed of a cross piece secured near the lower portion of said back rest and having the ends of said crosspiece extending into positions to cooperate with said seat for swinging the same.

8. A chair according to claim 5 in which said seat has recesses in which said parts of said back rest engage to swing said seat, said recesses terminating in shoulders which limit the extent to which said back rest can swing relatively to said chair frame, said seat when the front end thereof is swung upwardly moving said recesses out of engagement with said parts of said back rest to permit folding of said seat, legs and back rest into substantially parallel positions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 121,941 Hastings Dec. 19, 1871 688,443 Siccardi Dec. 10, 1901 1,045,599 Ostendorf Nov. 26, 1912 1,693,349 Rastetter Nov. 27, 1928 2,535,687 Lorenz Dec. 26, 1950 2,663,358 Lorenz Dec. 22, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 846,707 France June 12, 1939 

